Cons
Lacks high-end features found in VMware. Can't take snapshots of virtual-machine state for later restoration. No option for difference-only clones. Shaky USB support.

Bottom Line

For those who can do without linked clones, snapshots, and a few other high-end features, Parallels Workstation offers a less expensive alternative to our Editors' Choice, VMware Workstation. It's simple to use and handles straightforward virtual machine tasks, such as running a legacy app in a legacy operating system.

My Test Results
I created virtual machines for Windows 2000 and Windows XP and installed the Parallel Tools, which include video, sound, and network drivers for improved performance, in each. They also smooth mouse operation, keep the guest's time synchronized with the host's, and allow sharing of text and bitmaps smaller than 128KB between VMs via the clipboarda very handy ability. Everything went like clockwork until I cloned the Windows XP host machine. When the original and the clone were both active, they griped that "A duplicate name exists on the network." I had to use the System Properties applet to change the computer namebut I have to do the same thing with cloned VMs in VMware!

I created an additional virtual drive using the Parallels Image Tool, added it as a new device to the Win XP VM, and formatted the "drive" under Win XP. As with the similar VMware feature, it gave me the option of allocating the disk's full capacity at the start or allocating just as much as I needed and gradually expanding. Then I tried adding the same virtual drive to another VM, hoping that both could use the same virtual mass storage for file sharing (there's no equivalent to VMware's Shared Folder feature). That didn't quite work. Two VMs can share a virtual drive, but both VMs can't be active at once. If one is running, the other won't even boot. The Image Tool also lets you easily increase the maximum capacity of an existing virtual drive and is much simpler than the cryptic VMware command-line utility. (Confusingly, VMware's own help says you cannot change the maximum capacity of a virtual disk after creation.)

The only bump in this smooth ride came when I tried to plug in a USB thumb drive. I noted that the host system recognized the drive as "Parallels USB Device" (this driver mediates use of USB devices by the host and guests). But an error message announced that Parallels Workstation had an "internal exception" and asked me to close and restart it. After restarting, I tried again with just one VM activesame result. The error popped up for VMs containing Windows 2000, XP SP1, and XP SP2. Parallels' CEO confirmed this as a bug that surfaces on some systems. The company will release signed drivers in the near future, which should fix the problem. The same drive worked fine in a VMware VM; Virtual PC supports only standard USB input devices like keyboards and mice.

Because I constantly test other programs, I use VMware. There's no way I could switch to Parallels Workstation, since at any given time I have 50-odd VMs available, most of them linked clonesthey'd overflow the hard drive if each had to be a full copy. I constantly save and return to snapshots to test and retest specific features, and if sample malware wrecks a VM, I just go back to a snapshot before the infestation, which I also can't do with Parallels Workstation. I've seen vendor demos in which multiple servers and multiple client PCs were all VMware virtual machines linked in a "team" with a complex (virtual) network designed to represent a real-life physical configuration. A team, by the way, is a collection of VMs that you can start/stop together, typically linked in a network configuration. The network representation is so realistic, you can even specify a percentage of dropped packets. Not everyone needs these high-end features, however.

Parallels Workstation offers a strong alternative to VMware Workstation for many virtual machine applications. It will very competently run a legacy application in a legacy operating system, it's a great way to keep alternate OSs on hand for reference, and at just one-third the cost of VMWare, the price is quite attractive. Still, unless cost is an overriding factor (or you have a pressing need to run OS/2 in a VM), VMware is a better buy.

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